


This Is Falling In Love In The Cruelest Of Ways

by mysoulmateisactuallycarbs



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23289181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysoulmateisactuallycarbs/pseuds/mysoulmateisactuallycarbs
Summary: “I’ll sort of do it, Jess. You will be my inspiration,” Chloe clarifies, suddenly regretting that she ever decided to speak up.A How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days Inspired AU
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	This Is Falling In Love In The Cruelest Of Ways

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Welp, I haven't written anything in like a hundred years. The quarantine boredom has struck, so this is what I came up with. All mistakes are mine....maybe there aren't any overly glaring ones.

An exasperated sigh slips past Chloe Beale’s lips followed by a small shake of her head as she agonizes over the article that she’s written for what seems to be the thousandth time since writing it. It’s good, she knows that it’s good; but she can’t prevent the small sliver of doubt from echoing back at her from the depths of her mind. Time and time again, she’s pitched these types of articles to her boss, but they’ve ultimately never gone anywhere. The whole ordeal is incredibly frustrating. It took Chloe a ridiculously long time to really discover what she wanted to do in the first place, and at the time, writing wasn’t anywhere at all on that particular list. Sure, she had written her fair share of papers and stories for school and the feedback she’d been given on those had always been exceptionally positive, but the idea never really occurred to Chloe that writing should be her career. It took a great amount of soul searching to see what had been metaphorically standing with her the entire time, but she did ultimately figure it out. And from then on, she never looked back.

Right out of college, Chloe managed to snag an open spot at _Serenity_ magazine - the fastest growing women’s magazine in the country, to be exact. It wasn’t exactly what Chloe expected herself to be doing, but she knew that accepting the job offer would round out her resume and hopefully give her a better ability to compete whenever she did decide to move on. Additionally, the company had offered Chloe a very flexible schedule so that she was able to attend graduate school.

The job is fun though, and Chloe doesn’t regret accepting it by any means. How many people could actually say that they get to write about makeup and hair for a living and get paid for it? Two years into the job is when Chloe’s boss, Gail, promoted Chloe. The magazine’s _How-To_ columnist had recently quit, and Gail wanted Chloe to take over the position effective immediately. While Chloe wasn’t entirely fond of the idea, she knew Gail didn’t just hand out columns. It was the opposite, in fact. Gail Abernathy-McKadden runs a tight ship and while everyone would fully agree that Gail is a fantastic boss, she’s also certifiably crazy. For some reason though, she’s pretty taken with Chloe. The pair bonded pretty instantly, much to Chloe’s surprise, so it was pretty easy for Chloe to accept the position.

It actually wasn’t so bad. Writing the _How-To_ column has given Chloe the opportunity to try a variety of different things, most of which she’s injured or nearly injured herself while trying to accomplish. Ultimately though, the column has flourished under Chloe and it’s because she’s branched out and been so willing to put herself out there and go the extra mile to make things happen

Chloe sinks further into her desk chair and props her elbow up on the desk to rest her chin against the palm of her left hand while her right hovers over the backspace key. She shakes her head, unable to continue on with the task of deleting her latest project and chooses to save it to her computer instead, filing it away for later.

“Early, again?” a voice echoes and Chloe jumps at the sound, spinning around in her chair only to come face to face with dark hair and a knowing smile.

“Jesus, Flo, a little warning before the heart attack would’ve been nice,” Chloe laughs, blowing out a breath to try to reorient herself from the scare.

“Tunnel vision, severe tunnel vision, Chlo,” Flo counters as she moves around Chloe to put her things down at her desk before she turns to regard the redhead once more, catching a glimpse at Chloe’s computer screen in the process. “Oh, are you working on something new?” she asks, stepping away from her desk and moving back over to Chloe to get a better look at what her friend has been working on.

“New, yeah,” Chloe responds with a shrug before she slides the laptop into Flo’s line of sight, knowing that she’ll want to read it because she always does. 

“Chloe, this is good,” Flo reports with a smile, glancing back and forth between the words on the computer screen and Chloe for a moment before she shakes her head. Flo pushes the laptop back to Chloe and the expression on her face is one that Chloe has seen many times before. All Chloe can do is nod in agreement and sigh.

“It will never be in _Serenity_ Magazine, I know,” Chloe finishes for her, already knowing the turn that their conversation would be heading in. “It just sucks, Flo. I busted my ass in grad school and somehow all I’m good enough for is being a fucking _how-to_ girl. I want to write about things that matter. Things like foreign affairs and politics and the environment...things that I’m actually interested in,” she adds as she spins around in her chair to face the computer screen once more and exiting out of the article altogether, sinking back further into her chair with a pout.

“Keep busting your ass, Chlo,” Flo murmurs, reaching out a hand and lightly squeezing Chloe’s shoulder before moving back over to her desk and plopping down into her own chair. “You’ll get there Chlo, you’re an amazing writer. Anyone with eyes can see that. I mean the column alone has a bigger audience now than it ever has. And that is one hundred percent because of you, Chloe Beale,” Flo reminds her.

Chloe gives a single nod of her head in lieu of a response just as her phone begins to vibrate. Sighing to herself, Chloe scoops the device up and makes a face at the notification on her screen. “Staff meeting in thirty,” she says simply, making a face to which Flo responds with a similar expression as well as a roll of her eyes.

“Uh, hey Chloe,” Flo says after a moment, glancing around their shared space and frowning. “Where’s Jess? Haven’t seen her all morning.”

“Wallowing, that’s my guess,” Chloe retorted, and shook her head, standing up and sliding her purse onto her shoulder. “I got her, it’s my turn anyway. Which means you get the coffee.”

Flo nodded and waved her hand in the general direction of the door. “Hurry up, twenty-five minutes left,” she reiterated to try to hurry Chloe along. “Oh wait, samples,” she remembered and immediately began to dig through the few things on her desk for an empty bag and shoving a few makeup products inside, knowing that they would be helpful.

“Samples, brilliant!” Chloe exclaimed, probably a little louder than necessary, and took the bag from Jessica before spinning around on her heels and all but sprinting her way through the door.

Chloe squinted against the Los Angeles sunshine, fumbling around in her bag for her sunglasses as she walked. She finally plucked them out of her bag and slipped them over her eyes, pulling out her cellphone a few moments later to call Jessica, just on the off chance that she might answer and cursed under her breath when she doesn’t pick up by the fifth ring. Fortunately for Chloe, the apartment complex is only a couple of blocks away from the office which should give the redhead ample time to drag Jessica out of her apartment and back to work just in enough time to make the staff meeting.

A little bit of walking and a few flights of stairs later, Chloe knocks lightly on the door to apartment 3213, anxiously tapping her foot as she tries to somewhat patiently wait for the door to open.

“Hi,” Chloe hears before Jessica bursts into tears and walks back into her apartment. Chloe winces internally as she follows the blonde inside, gently closing the door behind her. “Good morning sunshine,” she offers with a small smile, reassuringly placing her hands on the woman’s shoulders before brushing past and moving further into the apartment.

“Okay, time to get dressed. We have a staff meeting in fifteen. Rise and shine, let’s go,” Chloe responds, clapping her hands once with her enthusiasm.

“I’m going back to bed,” Jessica announces, to which Chloe ignores and moves to the window to push open the closed curtains, “I have no reason to live.” 

“But Jess, the sun’s out,” Chloe tries again while fighting back the eyeroll as she wanders through Jessica’s closet and plucks Jessica’s favorite dress off of the hanger, moving to splay it out across the blonde’s bed. Chloe tosses the bag of makeup samples Jessica’s way as well and she can’t help but snicker a little as the bag hits Jessica in the face.

“Okay, that was my bad,” she giggles in response to the glare Jessica throws her way, moving to sit down on the edge of the bed.

“Okay, okay, just give me a second,” Jessica responds through sniffles, clearly trying to regain her composure.

“Time to get up and get dressed, blondie,” Chloe tries again, lightly patting Jessica’s leg through the covers. “I’m not going to let you lose your job on top of everything else. Come here.”

Jessica sniffles again in response, but she does finally sit up, and wraps her arms around Chloe in a fierce hug. Chloe returns the hug, lightly rubbing her hand across Jessica’s back. “You only dated the guy for a week, Jess. It’s not the end of the world,” Chloe tries, doing her best not to sound patronizing and only somewhat succeeding but thankfully Jessica is entirely too wrapped up in her dramatics to notice. 

It takes a few more minutes of begging, pleading, and Chloe essentially has to dress Jessica herself, but they ultimately do finally make it out of Jessica’s apartment. The duo arrive back at _Serenity_ with approximately eight minutes to spare and are greeted by Flo, standing outside the building holding a tray filled with coffee for each of them.

“Bless you,” Chloe murmurs as she takes the plastic cup from Flo before taking a long sip, subtly giving Flo a shake of her head so that she knows not to bombard Jessica with questions.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Jessica says as Flo passes over coffee to Jessica, and Chloe can’t help the sigh of relief at hearing those words.

“Come on ladies, meeting in five,” Chloe reminds them, wrapping an arm around each of her best friends from her spot in between them and walking toward the entrance.

“Why does this always happen to me?” Jessica blurts out before they can even make it to the door, on the verge of another catastrophic breakdown. Flo freezes and glances to Chloe while Chloe hangs her head, silently hoping that today just might be the day that she eyerolls herself into the next dimension. Unfortunately, luck isn’t on her side this particular day because Jessica takes it upon herself to continue.

“It’s always the same thing. Things are always going great, amazing, fantastic even, for like a week and a half. Then bam: it’s just over and I’m left completely confounded. Seriously, things always start out so well. I can’t wrap my head around this. It doesn’t make any sense,” Jessica whines, even going as far as to stomp her foot before she brushes past Chloe and Flo to walk into the building.

Flo looks to Chloe with a bewildered expression on her face, waving her hand dramatically to Jessica’s back but Chloe just shakes her head. “Shh, she’s moving, we’re going with it,” Chloe whispers, following behind Jessica.

“Seriously, I don’t understand. Aiden and I had such an amazing connection, right from the start. And it was mutual; it wasn’t one sided,” Jessica rambles on, turning around to face the pair before she can walk inside. “The first time we had sex,” Jessica sniffles, pausing a moment to frantically swipe at the end of her nose with a tissue she’s been holding, “it was so beautiful. I cried. I actually cried. It was literally perfect.”

Chloe freezes in place for a moment, her mouth opens and closes a couple of times but she can’t get the words out while Flo rushes to catch up to Jessica who’s abandoned them amidst her rambling and is halfway to the elevator.

“Wait, hold up, Jess...you cried?” Flo can’t help but question, even more confused as Jessica nods her head.

“Okay but by crying...you mean like one tear rolling down your cheek, right?” Chloe asks before she can think better of it, regretting the question almost immediately as it leaves her mouth.

“No, I was a blubbering mess,” Jessica clarifies as the group make their way through the lobby and to the elevators. “I was really, really emotional. I even told Aiden that I loved him.

“Jess, how many dates had you been on?” Chloe wonders, because this conversation is getting progressively weirder but it’s the equivalent of a bad car wreck; Chloe just can’t make herself look away.

“Five,” Jessica responds quickly, ducking her head. “Okay, it was two.”

Flo’s eyes widen at Jessica’s admission, turning her head toward Chloe and frantically gesturing in Jessica’s direction. “Two?”

“It was how I felt, okay? I just wanted to express myself. Why is that so wrong?” Jessica wonders, offering up a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.

“Uhhhh, okay,” Chloe responds, pressing the button for the elevator before turning back to face Jessica. “Well, what did he say?”

“Oh, he didn’t have to say anything,” Jessica replies, almost dreamily, “he felt the same way, I could tell.”

“Yeah, because being on the same page gets you dumped,” Flo mumbles under her breath, which gets her a swift elbow to the ribs followed by a glare from Chloe.

“But then he started getting really busy. And he wasn’t ever at home, I never knew where he was. He wouldn’t even answer my calls.”

“Wait, you kept calling him?” Chloe interrupts, tilting her head at Flo and then Jessica.

“I didn’t leave a message. There’s no way he knew it was me. My number is blocked.”

“Oh, sí,” Flo nods, “I’m sure he just thought it was one of his friends. It’s totally normal for men to call their friends and hang up fifty times, no problemas.”

Chloe hangs her head and honest to god tries not to laugh, but she can’t help the quiet giggle that escapes her lips.

“Yeah, but I know the real reason he dumped me,” Jessica presses on, oblivious to the world around her, “I’m too fat.”

“Jesus, Jessica, you’re not fat!,” both Chloe and Flo interject at the same time as the trio step onto the elevator and press the button for the sixth floor.

“All I’m saying is that if the most beautiful woman in the world acted the way that you did and did the things that you did, any guy would dump her too,” Chloe explains as they step out of the elevator and walk into the office.

“Oh please, no guy in their right mind would run away from you, Chloe,” Jessica counters.

“You really think any girl would put up with that shit?” Flo counters tilting her head at Jessica in amusement.

“It doesn’t matter. Guy or girl, Chloe could literally barf all over either of them. They would thank her and beg her to do it again.”

“Can’t say that I wouldn’t pay to see that happen,” Flo shrugs, stepping around the group and into the staff lounge.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Chloe can’t help but giggle because this whole thing has just gotten even more ridiculous within the span of a few seconds. “Jess, I’m flattered and a little grossed out, but nevertheless: if I did those things, the things that you did, to any person, I would get dumped. End of story.”

* * *

“Okay family, shoes off,” Gail’s voice rings out throughout the conference room followed by the soft sounds of several different pairs of shoes hitting the tile floor as everyone moves to find a seat.

“Deep breath everyone ready and....,” Gail continues on, as Flo and Chloe share an eyeroll, “And exhale....now, onto business.Lily, let’s start with you first: what’s new?”

Chloe shakes her head, doing her best to drown out the conversations of her coworkers hashing out the details of their latest pieces. It’s not that Chloe holds any ill feelings toward any of them, they’re all really great people; it’s just that they all have a tendency to be pretty self-absorbed. Chloe isn’t really sure that she can blame them for that though since it’s technically their job. But she’s never quite been surrounded by so many people who are more worried about blending in with the rest of the world as opposed to being their own person. It’s just something Chloe has never fully understood and she’s not sure that it will ever make sense to her. 

“What’s next with _how-to_ , Chloe?” Gail asks, effectively interrupting Chloe’s reverie.

“Oh, um, well, I’ve actually been working on something new,” Chloe begins, offering up a small smile that grows into something bigger as she notices the intrigue on Gail face. “It’s a political piece.” 

“Chloe, no,” Gail interrupts, shaking her head. “ _Serenity_ Magazine is fashion trends, diet fads, cosmetic surgeries, and salacious gossip.”

“Okay but....”

“No,” Gail repeats, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them once more. “I know that this column is new for you and you’ve done exceptionally well with it. When you turn it into a must read, then you can write whatever you want. Until then, you will write about whatever I want. Got it?”

“Got it,” Chloe sighs, nodding her head as she settles back into her seat.

“Jessica, your turn, what do you have?”

“I’m sorry, Gail, I wasn’t really feeling well and it just didn’t....”

“She got dumped,” Flo explains for her and Gail makes a sympathetic face at that.

“Hey, write about it,” Gail suggests. “It’s never good to keep those feelings in, learned that the hard way,” she laughs and quickly shrugs it off before anyone can question it...not that they would.

“Write about it? I can’t write about that,” Jessica says, vehemently shaking her head, “I can’t use my personal life for a story.”

“I’ll do it!” Chloe speaks up, gaining looks of surprise and intrigue from others inside of the room.

“Chloe!” Jessica exclaims, but Chloe holds up a hand to cut her off so that she can explain.

“I’ll sort of do it, Jess. You will be my inspiration,” Chloe clarifies, suddenly regretting that she ever decided to speak up.

“What exactly is Jessica your inspiration for?” Gail inquires, tilting her head a little as she moves her attention from Jessica to Chloe.

Chloe glances between Jessica and Gail for a moment, not entirely sure if she should continue but, at this point, it honestly can’t hurt. “Jessica is an amazing woman,” Chloe starts, gesturing to the blonde, before looking back to Gail. “But she has a problem holding onto relationships and the worst part of it all is that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing wrong...like a lot of our readers,” she adds, really just rambling at this point and hoping that she’s making some sense. “So, I was thinking that I could start dating someone and then run them off but only by using the common mistakes that people make in relationships. I can keep a diary of it and it can function as sort of a how-to in reverse....what not to do, if you will,” Chloe finishes, biting on her bottom lip as she looks back to Aubrey once more hoping that she didn’t just make a total ass of herself.

“How to get dumped in ten days?...” Gail repeats, tilting her head for a moment in thought as if she’s rehashing Chloe’s idea in her head over again. “I love it, done.”

“Wait, uh, Gail...why, why is it ten days?” Chloe wonders, because that seems like a really small amount of time to accomplish what she’s apparently planning to do.

“Five days it too short and we go to press in eleven,” Gail explains like it’s the most natural thing in the world before she moves on to someone else.

Chloe can’t be more relieved to have the attention off of her, closing her eyes and shaking her head as she thinks this over. She’s not entirely sure that she can pull it off, but she figures it won’t exactly be the worst thing that she’s ever done for a story. Sighing quietly to herself, Chloe lifts her head and chances a glance in Jessica’s direction and is quite surprised to see that she looks relieved while Flo looks impressed.

“Thank you,” Jessica mouths and Chloe can’t help but shrug, starting to feel somewhat okay with the way things have turned out.

She somehow managed to psychobabble her friend out of a terrible situation and come up with a story all within the same conversation.

And maybe, just maybe, this won’t be so bad after all.


End file.
